OTHER PEOPLE WE MARRIED by Emma Straub
Monday, February 21, 2011 at 10:55PM Review by Melissa
Emma Straub is already married, as am I, so it looks like I will have to settle for a platonic (but very public) declaration of love for her fabulous story collection OTHER PEOPLE WE MARRIED from FiveChapters.
I first discovered Emma's adorable book FLY-OVER STATE last year. On Twitter, she promised to send a hand-written thank you note if you bought her book. She wasn't kidding. I loved it even before I cracked the spine--the result of an extremely distinct memory of being a 22-year-old too-friendly Midwesterner living in New England, told I was from a fly-over state and then asked, "Ohio...what is that state like?" as if I had just said I was a native of a tribal village in Papua New Guinea. I adored that tiny book and the two stories it contained, and they stuck with me for a long time, popping into my head at the most random times. I told her via Twitter one day that I was thinking about the characters and wondering what happened to them after the story ended, particularly the 20-something ne'er-do-well Mud. (Emma replied she was certain Mud wasn't doing anything good.) I also wondered how quickly Emma could tell me MORE stories.
The answer was...by February of 2011. OTHER PEOPLE WE MARRIED contains twelve distinct stories, including the original two I loved so much from FLY-OVER STATE, a major bonus for those who missed that charming book. Three of the stories share a main character, following her through a trio of pivotal moments in friendships and relationships; the nine others are truly stand-alone--varying subjects and situations, but all of them facing very real struggles or choices (some of them simple but painful, some life-changing and devastating.)
For me, her writing is that of a more prolific author--it's like Emma has been writing for decades. I am awed by the way she is able to take a simple story (semi-estranged sisters on an ill-advised trip together; a young married couple from New York trapped in a small town life) and craft it into something much bigger, more beautiful and infinitely complex. It is a testament to her talent that my friend Lydia emailed me while we were both reading the book; she said "I'm reading it as slowly as I can to make it last." We agreed it ended too soon for us--I would have happily read three times this many stories and I still could have asked for more.
What I treasure most about Emma's writing is the small moments--single sentences that just zing with an energy or a truth or something witty or unique. My bad book habit (particularly as a Paper Book Person who should know to keep books pristine) is to fold the bottom corner of a page on which I find a gem. In most books I read I might find two or three pages with something good enough to tag and go back to....but I have provided here photographic evidence of the wide-scale book destruction that took place in my copy of OTHER PEOPLE WE MARRIED because I found so many of those moments of perfection. (P.S. Emma: P. 86--Sandusky, Ohio! Fly-over state, perhaps, but indeed the roller coaster capital of America.)
Some of my favorites (if I catalogued them all, it would be like typing the entire book, so I just picked a few that spoke to me):
"Abigail had always been the funny one, and she conveniently forgot that I was trying, that my failure was so guaranteed that it would be better if she ignored my efforts entirely."
"I couldn't remember whose idea it was, or how it came to pass that tickets were purchased and a hotel room booked, when clearly (it was already so clear) this should have been yet another generous, twinkling thought that floated away as soon as it was spoken aloud."
"I'd always hated it when parents counted in months, the same way that pregnant women counted in weeks, as though their time was too precious to use such large units of measure."
"No one thought I would ever get married, not to somebody as clean as John, as fancy...My parents didn't close the door when they used the bathroom, and as far as I knew no one in John's family ever even had to go."
"I was surprised to hear that Mud spoke to his mother in full sentences, that he knew the word 'friendly.' 'Your son is an interesting individual,' I said. Clowns were interesting. People on death row were interesting. Mud qualified."
"If I died, I wanted James to get married again as soon as possible, either to a librarian or a reporter for a trashy magazine. It was something we'd discussed."
I'm usually a reader who wants some manner of finality to a story--not a happily ever after, but some sort of ending to say, I know what happened, and where they everyone landed. It is a tribute, then, to Emma's writing that her stories leave a swath of open ends--yet this makes me love them MORE. I adore that I get to put down this book and wonder whether the sisters ever spoke again after Palm Springs; decide for myself what happened to the (sort-of) widower Stephen and widow Laura after they left Rome; to again wonder whether Mud is still bagging groceries in Wisconsin and if he ever moved out of the basement.
I had the pleasure of being in New York last week for a conference and was able to attend one of Emma's readings. An audience member asked her why she decided to be an author. She answered, simply, "I love making things up. I always have." I hope, for the rest of our sakes, that she never tires of making things up for us.
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